Teacher: Cory Brautigam

Grade: 11/12
Content Area: English
**Lesson for 35 minute virtual block

1. Content and Standards:

a. Content:​ ​Students are researching a person (contemporary or historical) they
look up to and respect, and making inferences about how that person
accomplished what they did.
b. Standard - CC.1.2.11-12.B​ ​Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support
analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences and conclusions
based on and related to an author’s implicit and explicit assumptions and beliefs.
c. Standard - CC.1.2.11-12.G Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information
presented in different media or formats (e.g. visually, quantitatively) as well as in
words in order to address a question or solve a problem.

2. Prerequisites:
a. Skills
i. Basic research skills (identifying key words to enter into search engine,
recognizing relevant titles, some evaluation of credibility)
ii. Identifying relevant evidence within an informational text
iii. Familiarity filling in a graphic organizer in a google doc
iv. Ability to copy and paste would be useful
b. Knowledge
i. Should have already identified a person of interest to research
ii. Clarity on our class definition of “from” in our guiding question: Where are
they from?
iii. Basic understanding of growth mindset will support connection to work in
other classes, and with their project

3. Essential Questions:
a. Where is your person from?
b. Can one inference be better than another? Why or why not?
4. Materials and Equipment
a. Slide Set​ - Guide instruction with visuals, share images for making inferences,
and model use of graphic organizer with evidence from the text.
b. Image from the New York Times​ - We will practice making inferences based on
observations/evidence and what we know. This will help us ‘discover’ the formula
for making inferences (which is really a definition of sorts).
c. Graphic Organizer​ - Students will use this to guide and document their research
along with their interpretations/inferences.
d. Exit Ticket Question in Google Classroom: “Based on your 5-minute research,
what can you INFER about where your person is ‘from’? Explain why you think
that.” - This will be used to assess students’ understanding of how to make an
 inference (demonstrated by their explanation), and reassess that they understand
what we mean by our guiding question, “Where is your person from?”
5. Instructional Objective:
a. Students will know the definition of inference, and will be able to make strong
inferences with clear reasoning.
b. Students will be able to recognize when they are making an inference, and reflect
on whether it is a strong inference or not.
c. Students will be able to identify relevant details in a text.
d. Students will know more about the background of the person they are
researching than they did at the start of class.
6. Instructional Procedures:
a. Before (13 mins)
i. Have students open the graphic organizer in the google classroom, and
go over the objectives (have agenda displayed).
ii. Teacher will facilitate making inferences with images by moving through
the following questions with each image:
1. What do you notice? What do you actually see in the picture?
2. What do you think is going on? Why? (Prompt students to provide
their reasoning, connecting their guesses to what they observed,
and what they know.
iii. As students respond, teacher will pause screen share on the image so
that students can continue to observe. Teacher will type student
observations on the next slide under the “Evidence/Observation” column,
and type student reasoning/justification under the “Previous Knowledge”
column in the inference formula.
iv. After collectively making an inference based on the observations and with
clear reasoning, teacher will reveal the actual caption from the picture.
Note whether the class was close or not.
v. Teacher shares: “There are 2 things we use when making an inference,
and we just did that together. Notice under this first column where we
have [read list of observations]. What would you call these? What is this a
list of?” Reveal the column header “Evidence/Observations.” Repeat with
the second column, “Previous Knowledge.”
b. During (15 mins)
i. Teacher says, “We are going to be making inferences about where the
people we are researching are from. Remember that when we say “from”
we mean more than just a place. We are talking about what made them
who they are today -- their experience and history.”
ii. Model process with Assata Shakur:
1. Use keywords “Assata Shakur history” on a Google search
(remind students they might use “[person’s name] biography” or
some other search).
2. Scroll through and select The Guardian article “Assata Shakur:
from civil rights activist to FBI’s most-wanted” (2014).
 3. Read first paragraphs aloud and think aloud to model annotation
and identifying relevant evidence.
4. Select significant quote, and copy and paste into graphic organizer
on slide.
5. Teacher explains how they might use the quote (evidence from
the text) and their previous knowledge to make an inference about
where Assata Shakur is “from.”
iii. Students break to do a “5-minute research drill” using one of the sources
that they’ve already identified on their person (if they don’t yet have
sources, they can do a quick google search). Remind them to use the
graphic organizer they opened at the beginning of class.
c. After (7 mins)
i. After the timer goes off, teacher invites students to return to Zoom, and
asks them to private message the teacher the two things we use when
making inferences (also post this direction in the chat, so that as students
return they see it and send their response).
ii. If time permits, invite 3 people to share something interesting they learned
about their person.
iii. Teacher makes the exit ticket live in the Google Classroom and invites
students to go and respond to the question: Based on your 5-minute
research, what can you INFER about where your person is ‘from’?
Explain why you think that. (Emphasize that students are being assessed
based on their explanation, and remind them of the inference made by the
teacher when modeling with Assata)
7. Assessment:
a. The opening activity provides space for formative assessment through teacher’s
questions and students’ responses.
b. The graphic organizer students begin filling out during the “5-minute research
drill” will allow the teacher to assess whether students are able to identify
relevant evidence within a text. These can be open in live time to see what
students are adding. (Private messages can be sent to students to help guide
them, and to respond to the assessment in live time.)
c. When students send a private message with the two things we use when making
an inference, the teacher will be able to assess who can provide a basic
definition of inference.
d. Students’ responses to the exit ticket question serve as a summative assessment
that will allow the teacher to assess whether students understand how to make a
strong inference with evidence from the text and clear reasoning. It will also allow
the teacher to assess whether students are learning more about their person of
interest.
8. Differentiated Instruction:
a. With the activity where students are making inferences with images, there are
many different levels at which students can engage. The initial question “What do
you notice?” is highly accessible.
b. Teacher will pre-select readings at appropriate lexile levels for students who
struggle with reading, and link them in their graphic organizers. This will allow
students to go directly into their graphic organizer and open the link to a reading
that is relevant and appropriately leveled.
c. During the “5-minute research drill” the teacher can offer one-on-one support to a
student by generating a breakout room and joining it with the student.
d. Students who are more advanced readers can be prompted to complete more of
the graphic organizer, identifying the main idea of the text and adding a summary
at the bottom. In later classes, when the class is reviewing those sections, these
students can be digging into more sources in order to improve the quality of their
research.